Charles Anderson Dana, editor of the New York Sun newspaper, popularised the term in this context,[5][6] deriving it from the Algonquin word mugumquomp or mugquomp, meaning "important person"[citation needed] or "war leader".

[8] The term also occurs in the 1959 William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch and in the 1962 Roald Dahl children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, both times to describe fantastical creatures.

Two ice fishers alleged to have seen a black, glistening head through their fishing hole in 1982; they noted that it had protruding eyes, one of which was trained on them and gave the impression it was sizing the men up.

Another ice fisherman reported that he'd seen the creature completely out of the water one winter night, that it had a head similar to that of a dinosaur, and that it was long enough to curl around a number of fishing huts at once.

Other suggestions have included descendants of prehistoric animals such as the nautiloid Orthoceras,[14] the plesiosaur Elasmosaurus,[3] the whale Basilosaurus,[1] and the early amphibian Ichthyostega; groups of otters swimming in single-file lines;[13] logs floating just below the surface of the water, also known as "dead heads"; and waves created in the wakes of motorboats or during small earthquakes.

I never learned the real significance of the performance, but anyone who passed on the lake with a loaded canoe in front of those rocks will know that such practice was very advisable to court the favor of the water sprite.

[3] In the same article, Dent claimed that he had first been made aware of the creature ten years earlier in the late-1960s, and that the presence of such an animal in the lake could provide a boost to the town's tourism industry.

Weeks later, journalist Mike Pearson published an account of Chuck Coull's early-1960s encounter with the Mugwump across two articles in The Temiskaming Speaker, sparking a brief local obsession with the creature that would last several years.

The publications, including The Temiskaming Speaker also engaged in tabloid journalism to sensationalize the mystery, the most blatant being the 1982 article 'Tessie the monster stirs scientific world' which featured three explanations for the creature presented by three fictional cryptozoologists.

The journalist most central to reporting on the Mugwump was Ada Arney, who usually wrote about the creature under the pen name "Alice Peeper" but also used other aliases including "Dr. Pablo von McDonell" and "Mary Wollstonescraft Sheltey".

[3]Even after the initial media interest waned, sightings of the Mugwump were reported regularly in the Baie-des-Pères on the eastern side of Lake Timiskaming in the 1980s, particularly in Ville-Marie, Quebec, and along Vieux-Fort Road in the summer months.

[20] Musician Philippe B, who is also from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, also referenced the creature on his 2017 album "La grande nuit vidéo" with the song 'Le monstre du lac Témiscamingue'.